The Underground Railroad
preferred not to let the left hand know what the right hand doeth, we
may contemplate the philanthropic labors of one, whose generosity and
benevolence knew no bounds; whose friendship devotion and liberality,
were felt in all the principal stations of the Underground Rail Road;
whose heart went out after the millions in fetters, the fleeing
fugitive, the free, proscribed, the ignorant deprived of education;
whose house was the home of the advocate of the slave from the United
States, especially if he wore a colored skin or had been a slave. We
would not venture to say how many of the enslaved this kind hand helped
to purchase (Frederick Douglass and many others, being of the number.)
How many were assisted in procuring an education, how many who pined in
slave prisons were aided, how many fleeing over the perilous Underground
Rail Road were benefited, the All-seeing Eye alone knoweth;
nevertheless, we are happy to be able to give our readers some idea of
the unwearied labors of the friend to whom we allude. Here again we are
compelled to resort to private correspondence which took place when
Cotton was King, and the Slave-power of the South could boastingly say,
in the language of the apocalyptic woman, "I sit as a queen, and shall
see no sorrow," when that power was maddened to desperation, by the
heroism of the martyr, John Brown, and the fettered bondmen were ever
and anon traveling over the Underground Rail Road. In this "darkest
hour, just before the break of day," the heart of the friend of whom we
speak, was greatly moved to consider the wants of the oppressed in
various directions.
How worthily and successfully her labors gave evidence of an earnest
devotion to freedom, the mode and measures adopted by her, to awaken
sympathy in the breast of the benevolent of her own countrymen, and how
noble her example, may be learned from a small pamphlet and explanatory
letters which, when written, were intended especially for private use,
but which we now feel constrained to copy from a sense of justice to
disinterested philanthropy.
PAMPHLET, AND LETTERS
FROM MRS. ANNA H. RICHARDSON, OF NEWCASTLE, ENGLAND.
TO THE FRIENDS OF THE SLAVE.
DEAR FRIENDS--For some months past my dear husband and I have
wished very gratefully to thank you for having so kindly
assisted us in various Anti-Slavery efforts, and we now think it
quite time to give an account of our stewardship, and also to
lay before you several items of interesting intelligence
received from different parts of the United States. We will
thank you to look upon this intelligence as private, and must
request you to guard against any portion of it being reprinted.
WILLIAM S. BAILEY.--We have had great pleasure in forwarding
£222 to our valued correspondent, William S. Bailey, of Newport,
Kentucky; £160 of this sum in response to a circular issued at
Newcastle in the summer of last year, and received by our
friend, David Oliver, who acted as treasurer, and the remainder
chiefly collected by our dear young friends in England and
Ireland, after reading the account of his little daughter,
"Laura." This money has been very thankfully acknowledged, with
the exception of the last remittance just now on the road.
Most of our readers will be aware that W.S. Bailey's
printing-office and premises were again ruthlessly attacked
after the Harper's Ferry outbreak, on the unfounded assumption
that he was meditating a similar proceeding, and that it was
unsafe for a free press to be any longer tolerated in Kentucky.
His forms and type were accordingly dragged through the streets
of Newport, and a considerable portion of them flung by a mob
(of "gentlemen") into the Ohio River. A few extracts from his
own letters will pretty fully explain both his past and present
position. The subscription list on his behalf is still open, and
any further assistance for this heroic man and his noble-hearted
family will be very gratefully received and forwarded.
"NEWPORT, KENTUCKY, Nov. 19th, 1859.
"From my letter of the 7th inst. you will have learned
the sad intelligence that my printing-office has been
destroyed by a brutal mob of Pro-Slavery men. Through
the money I received from you and other friends in this
country I was moving the cause of freedom in all parts
of Kentucky. The people seemed to grasp our platform
with eagerness, and the slaveholders became alarmed to
see their wish to read and discuss its simple truths.
Hence they plotted together to devise a stratagem by
which they could destroy _The Free South_, and in the
meantime the Harper's Ferry difficulty, by Mr. Brown,
was seized upon to excite the people against me, and the
most extravagant lies were told about me, as trying to
excite slaves to rebellion; intending to seize the
United States barracks at this place, arm the negroes,
and commence war upon slave-holders. All these lies were
told as profound secrets to the people by the tools of
the slave-power. But these lies have already exploded,
and the people are resuming their common sense again.
"I tried your plan of non-resistance with all my power.
I pleaded with all the earnestness of my soul, and so
did my wife and daughters, but though I am certain many
were moved in conscience against the savage outrage, and
did their work with a stinging heart, yet they felt that
they must stick to their party, and complete the
destruction. Slavery, indeed, makes the most hardened
savages the world ever knew. The savage war-whoop of the
Indian never equalled their dastardly cry of 'shoot
him,' 'cut his throat,' 'stab him,' and such like words
most maliciously spoken." * * "Slavery is the cause
of this devilish spirit in men; but this outrage has
gained me many friends, and will do much towards putting
down Slavery in the state. It will also add many
thousand votes to the republican presidential candidate
in 1860. God grant it may work out a great good!" * *
* * "I Want to get started again as soon as I possibly
can. As soon as I can raise 1,000 dollars, I can make a
beginning, and soon after you will see _The Free South_
again, and I trust a much handsomer sheet than it was
before."
NEWPORT, January 6th, 1860.
"Yours of 12mo. 17th, 1860, is received, containing a
draft for £50, and another of the 'Little Laura' books,
which, thank God, is doing some good in Newport and
Covington, in the hands of two Christian friends. The
renewed obligations under which the good people of
England, through your instrumentality, place me and my
abused people, call for expressions of gratitude from
both me and them beyond my ability to pen. But you can
imagine how we ought to feel in our trials and wants to
such kind friends as you. Neither I nor my Anti-Slavery
friends here can express our thankfulness in the elegant
language your better educated countrymen may feel we
should use, but, by the Omnipotent Judge of all hearts,
I trust our feeble effort will be accepted, and you and
yours be blessed and protected now and for ever. Such
encouragement strengthens me in the belief that the
Spirit of God is abroad in the hearts of the people,
moving them to sympathize with the poor, subjected
slave." * * * * "I have the promise of abler pens
to aid me when I get started again; and I am glad to see
that a poor working-man and his family have been the
means of calling the attention of men of letters to
assist in raising from the dust a crushed race of men;
and although the red clouds of war hover thick around
us, and vengeance lurks in secret places, I trust,
through the guidance of an All-wise Director, to steer
safely through the angry tide that now so often ebbs and
flows around me; but should I fall, I trust, dear lady,
that my dear wife and family may be remembered by the
good and true."
"NEWPORT, May 25th, 1860.
"I am glad to tell you that we feel it a great victory
over the slave power to be able to rise again from our
ruins, and in the face of slave-owning despots denounce
their inhumanity and their sins. I trust that Almighty
God will continue to be with me and my dear family in
this good work." * * * "You cannot but see, I
think, by the southern press, that slave-holders begin
to fear and tremble for the safety of their 'peculiar
institution.' The death of John Brown is yet to be
atoned for, by the slave-holding oligarchy. His undying
spirit haunts them by day and by night, and in the midst
of their voluptuous enjoyments, the very thought of John
Brown chills their souls and poisons their pleasures.
Their tarring and feathering of good citizens; their
riding them upon rails, and ducking them, in dirty
ponds; their destruction of liberty presses, and the
hanging of John Brown and his friends, to intimidate men
from the advocacy of freedom, will all come tumbling
upon their own heads as a just retribution for their
outrageous brutality. Only let us persevere, and
oppressed humanity, bent in timid silence throughout the
south, will rise and throw off the yoke of Slavery and
rejoice in beholding itself _free_!"
"NEWPORT, August 18.
"I send you three copies of my paper. Since receiving
your letter, I and my family have done all in our power
to get it out, but we had to get old type from the
foundry and sort it, to make the sheet the size you now
see it. We hate to be put down by the influence of
tyranny, and you cannot imagine our sorrow, anxiety,
necessity and determination." * * * "I have received,
since the press was destroyed, 700 dollars in all, which
has been spent in repairing and roofing our
dwelling-house, and repairing the breaches made upon the
office, together with mending the presses and procuring
job type and some little for the paper, but nearly all
the latter is old type. Our kindest thanks to the
liberty-loving people of your country, Scotland, and
Ireland, and tell them I shall never surrender the cause
of freedom. A little money from all my friends, would
soon reinstate me, and when they see my paper I trust it
will cheer their hopes, and cause a new fire for liberty
in Kentucky.
"I cannot but sometimes ask in my closet meditations: O
God of mercy and love, why permittest Thou these things?
But still I hope for a change of mind in my enemies, and
shall press onward to accomplish the great task
seemingly allotted to me upon Kentucky soil."
THE PERSECUTED BEREANS.--There is another call connected with
Kentucky, which we wish to bring before our friends. At a
village in that State, called Berea, (situated in Madison
county), a little band of Christian men and women, had been
pursuing their useful labors for some years past. They avowedly